Mexican Filmmaker to make part 2 of Mexico Blockbuster - “A Day Without a Mexican”

Mexican director Sergio Arau and his wife, actress Yareli Arismendi, are working on a sequel to the film “A Day Without a Mexican” to keep the subject of immigrants in the public eye.

“It’s going to be called ‘Another Day Without a Mexican,’ and of course we’re a little scared because ‘Part 2’ of anything is rarely good, but we think we have to keep the public focused on this subject,” the filmmaker told Efe in an interview

While the original film got moviegoers thinking about what would happen to the city of Los Angeles if someday all its Hispanics disappeared, the sequel will address the harsh immigration law Arizona adopted in 2010, SB 1070, and copycat measures in states such as Alabama and Utah, Arau said.

“I see it as similar to when Robert Rodriguez made ‘El Maricahi’ and later made ‘Desperado’ - it’s really the same movie but done bigger, with more investment and a much wider distribution, because what really excites us is getting the message to more people,” he said.

“A Day Without a Mexican,” which came out in 2004, was the second biggest box-office hit in the history of Mexican movies, but in the United States it was basically seen only in California, Arau said.

The fact of having made it with a Mexican studio put some limitations on its distribution, so this time he’s going at it with more financing as well as a more complete, more up-to-date screenplay, but always keeping Arau’s characteristic sense of humor and critical thinking.

If all goes as planned, “Another Day Without Mexicans” will be in movie theaters by late 2012. “We hope to be in theaters before the Mayan prophecy comes true,” he laughed.

At 60, Arau also plans to assemble an integrated collection of his work as painter, musician and caricaturist, passions he has indulged simultaneously since he was a teenager.

“I’ve been very critical with my caricatures and drawings, a defender of Mexican identity with my paintings, and created with my buddies in the Botellita de Jerez group our own version of Mexican rock, full of satire and humor,” he said.